France-based battery producer Verkor secured €100m ($118m) on Tuesday in a funding round co-led by carmaker Renault Group and EQT Ventures, the venture capital arm of private equity firm EQT Partners.
Advanced materials producer Arkema, digital consultancy Capgemini, energy management equipment producer Schneider Electric, carbon product manufacturer Tokai Cobex and property developer Groupe Idec also took part in the round.
Demeter’s Fund for Ecologic Modernisation of Transport, EIT InnoEnergy and the governments of France and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region filled out the investors. Schneider Electric, EIT InnoEnergy and Idec were all identified as Verkor partners in September 2020 but it is unclear whether they had invested at that point.
Founded in July 2020, Verkor is developing low-carbon battery cells for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage which will be manufactured at gigafactories in its home country and other locations in southern Europe.
The news came the week after Verkor and Renault Group formed a partnership which will involve the company supplying at least 10 GW-hours of power per year to the latter’s cars, including the Alpine series.
The funding will help Verkor expand its business and support the construction of an advanced battery cell design hub, Verkor Innovation Centre.
Verkor’s chief executive, Benoit Lemaignan said: “We are honoured to have shareholders of such a high quality on board with us. I want to thank our team for what we have achieved together in less than a year of existence.
“Our new shareholding structure totally reflects our ambition: an end-to-end approach to battery manufacturing, each of us focusing on what we do best, while cross-fertilising our expertise.”
